[WIP] General Dynamics “YF-16 Prototype” project

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Introduction:
I have started this thread which is intended for absolute beginners to the FS Developer forum:
- to give everyone an impression what it really takes to build my own FSX compatible aircraft in Blender.
- in order to get them going in the right direction when working with Blender,
- provide a possible "step-by-step" guideline to work along,
- to show the progress of my YF-16 prototype project
So not only the nice, smooth, crispy looking pictures, but also the faults, errors and messy one's.
The hurdles which I had to be overcome, my first time ever Blender 3D mesh modeling challenges

1. The YF-16 Prototype project – How it all got started:
As a little child I wanted to become a (jet-fighter) pilot. Longing to be “one of those men in their magnificent flying machines”. Unfortunately my live has taken another turn (“ICT-technology” in all her aspects) but “the magic of (military) flight (simulation)” never let me go.
My first flight-simulator encounter was on the TRS-80 of my best friends father.
He owned a copy of “T80-FS1 Flightsimulator” - by SubLOGIC:
- http://oldcomputers.net/trs80i.html
- http://www.trs-80.org/t80-fs1/

and that is how I initially got infected with the PC flight-simulator virus.

As I grew older I learned myself more (coding) skills on my PC. I wanted to create my own flightsimulator, so I could be in full control of my own flight simulator experience. I even got started coding in Borland “Turbo Pascal v3.0” creating my own (pilot/navigator flightdeck) flightsim.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Pascal

I quickly developed a little client-server program that connected 2 pc's and exchanged data in Visual Basic 6. Unfortunately I ran into that same wall again,
not being able to find the right VB6 examples and VB6 coding-knowledge to proceed and hook my VB6 executable into the heart of Microsoft Flightsimulator.

So I had to abandon this Air-toAir refuel project since I did not have the time to learn Visual C++ back then.

3. The desire to create, build and fly my own jetfighter (2017):
After “being away from virtual cockpit” for about 9 years (2004-2013), I started again with (online) flight-simulation.
In between - around 2007 - I did get a taste of the opensource FlightGear simulator on Red Hat Linux, but my old computer was simply not powerful enough to run this wonderful simulator fluently.
Later in time I re-joined the VATSIM and IVAO online flight networks. I found myself quickly flying “Special Ops” missions and “Special Ops Worldtours” together with a lot of likewise and passionate pilots.

All above are magnificent designed and build aircraft.... and for free too... but I .. yeah you guessed it already …
I could not customize them to my own needs..... So as you can imagine by now, the blood creeps where it is not supposed to go ... and I started to look for constructive ways to build my own F-16 “Viper.
That customization desire is sparked my current YF-16 adventure.

Kris's B2FSX tutorials got inspired and also pointed me in the direction of our “FS Developer” community and.... here I am. I've finally found the best place on the Internet where I can learn everything there is to learn in “the Art of Flightsim add-on creation”

Thank you gentleman! for allowing me to be a part of this amazing group of talented and creative individuals.

and a long-time dream came true! Everything went fine, until the moment supreme, when I wanted to export my model towards FSX.

KLABOOM! BANG!
A black cryptical Python error message hit my screen and... man... could I get grumpy in no time? YES! I posted this error on the FSDeveloper forum and soon I received from the experts, to get going again.
This event triggered the thought that “it would be wise to master Blender first” before continuing with the Blender2 FSX toolkit. And so “getting my Blender basics right” became the next goal on my radar.

Beside learning new Blender tricks on the CGCookie community, I continued to search the Internet and Youtube channels for more specialized and in-depth tutorials about the subject I needed to get my YF-16 into Blender.
During this search I have compiled an overview of the many Blender related resources for everyone to enjoy.
My overview called “Blender2FSX Toolkit - "Getting Started Guide" can be downloaded here:
- http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/blender2fsx-toolkit-getting-started-guide.191/

So I trained myself to use EVERY available Internet search engine – by default - I could get my hands on to burst these filterbubbles again.Amazing what one can find when one learns to mine the Internet above and beyond Google.

8. WhichYF-16 materials did I need to get started in Blender and why?
The absolute basis is the most detailed “Blueprint”/ Three-way-view (top, front, left/right) view you can find online.
Of course I would like to work from a copy of the original General Dynamics YF-16 manufacturing blueprints, but you can not have it all right? So I decided to get started by using these 5 different blueprints and 1 differential image.

F-16 blueprint from a radio controlled modelers forum – the most detailed cross-section diagram online.

These 6 images gave me enough information to get started in Blender. Although I did not have a copy of the original YF-16 blueprint, I decided just to get started with modeling an F-16C airframe and take it from there. Otherwise I still would remained stuck in this phase of the project. I can always re-adjust the fuselage and cockpit when I can gain access to more detailed YF-16 materials later.

EDIT: (30-05-2017) I've added more blueprints and cockpit diagrams to this section:

F16A Cockpit layout

F16C Cockpit

F16C Center console

F16C Auxilary panel - Left side

F16C Auxilary panel - Right side

F16C Console - Left

F16C Console - Right

F16C - Various angles of panels and consoles

EDIT: In order to keep the length of this thread "under control" I have decided to post the following information / aircraft, part:
- (Summary about that section, the challenges i've encountered)
- 1 relevant image per chapter
- 1 link to my corresponding YF16 Flick Album (which contains the rest of the images)

9. Building the F-16C – V1 – Nose cone to Tailpipe – from a cylinder:
This was my first attempt, going by what I had already learned when using industrial grade CAD package like Bentley's Microstation and AutoDesk AutoCad and 3D Studio.
(Hint: There where no mesh-modeling technique back then ;-)

10. Building the F-16C – V2 - backwards - tailpipe to nosecone – “extend and extrude”.
Since I was not satisfied with the cockpit and wingroot area, I made another version of the fuselage.
This time I started at the tailpipe in order to see how that was going.

Up to this point I was happy with the achieved results since I had no prior Blender mesh-model-experience.
I simply was CAD-modeling and extended my mechanical drawing skills from school into a computer.
Still, I wanted to achieve a better, more smoother flowing F-16C fuselage surface.

12. Building the F-16C – V3 - cross-sections only – front to back – connecting lines and faces.
This time I choose a totally different approach. One method I still remembered from my early CAD experience on the pc (decades ago). “Building a 3D model from 2D cross-sections only”.
I choose the big F-16C blueprint since it had a number of clearly defined fuselage cross-sections on it. I did not choose the rc-model blueprint, since on that one was just a little too much, a bit overkill for this.
I only wanted to test the “2D to 3D building”principle, not the amount of cross-section. Perhaps I'm going to build a fuselage V4?5? in the near future to be able to model the F-16 fuselage to her absolute perfection, who knows, but for now this approach will do.
I first created the cross-section for a uniform set of circles with an equal number of vertixes on it

13. Building a smoother canopy:
Rebuilding the fuselage from cross-sections gave me a better and more smooth looking fuselage.
Now I needed to re-work the cockpit and canopy section for a more smooth look.

14. Rebuilding the fuselage (v5) in 3D mesh modeling mode:
So far I had been leaning on my old CAD skills to model the fuselage. But, since that did not give me the results I wanted. I made 5th copy of the fuselage, according to the Blender mesh-modeling technique.
Thanks Frits (F747fly) for showing me how to do this properly!

16. Building the landing gear - main wheels.
Now things started to get interesting, the complex movements of the F-16 main landing gear.

The main landing gear of the F16 has 2 different types of motions:
- 2 “rotation only” of the 2 main static landing-gear struts....... (pink and green pipes)
- 1 “in/out-folding/rotating” motion of the retracting bars.......... (red and yellow bars)
So far i've only animated the pink and green bars moving up, down. I will have to study more to be able to animate the retraction bars properly. See the images below for the state of the main landing gear so far.

17. Adding an animation Rigging Panel to the model
After completing the landing-gears and animations, I decided to expand my Blender skills a bit further. I added a rigging panel to the F16-model, through which I can control all her animated parts.
For building an FSX compatible 3D aircraft modeling, a rigging panel was not essential at all, but I wanted to learn more then just “aircraft-modeling” (for other purposes later on in life as well). So why not do it now?

18. Animating a VFR-circuit test-flight:
In order to test the F16-C's airworthiness, I build her a hardened aircraft shelter on a small military airport.
I then created a Blender animation sequence to test all her flight - and animation characteristics.

19. Creating the F-16A and B cockpit bathtub:
In order to create a “reference volume” in which I could build the cockpit, I had to cut out a portion of her fuselage.
I copied the portion into a 2nd Blender file to keep “the outside (fuselage) work” separated from the inside (3D virtual cockpit) work.

So I continued to model her cockpit around the F-16 flightdeck materials I was able to find. On that search I landed on a truly awesome F-16C home-pit builder website over here (http://xflight.de/pe_org_doc.htm[/url']http://xflight.de/pe_org_doc.htm[/url]).
I used these diagrams as background images in Blender and got started to:
- first build an F-16C cockpit as good as I can for now.
- later degrade the F-16C cockpit down to real YF-16 layout.

21. Modeling the YF-16 Escapac IH-8 ejection seat:
I also want not able to find drawings of the Escapac IH-8 Ejection seat, which was only used in the YF-16.
So I went ahead modeling the other – default – ejection-seat, the “Aces II”.